Marriage is
by mandymld
Summary: Hermione and Harry attend the first anniversary ball of the defeat of Voldemort and face another foe. This time an irate Molly Weasley who is angry she broke up with Ron. Severus, Remus and Tonks live because I hate how they died in the story. JKR should have killed off Arthur instead like she had originally planned.


A/N: A one shot I came up with when I was given a prompt for GH that immediately screamed Hermione telling off Molly Weasley. It wouldn't leave me alone as I researched the effects and how to make certain brownies for my Vesta Accolades story. 

**Marriage is...**

Hermione looked around the ballroom at those gathered to celebrate the first anniversary of the defeat of Voldemort and shuddered when she saw the sea of red hair entering and greeting the Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt Locating Harry talking to Luna and Neville along with a few other of their recently graduating classmates, she placed her now empty drink glass on a nearby floating tray and went to warn him of the incoming group.

"Harry." She said as she placed her hand on his arm. When the raven haired hero and recent Hogwart's graduate looked her way she leaned in to whisper. "Weasleys."

Groaning, he said "Ginny said that they wouldn't be here tonight."

"Looks like she was wrong." Hermione said with a grimace. "Where is she, anyhow?"

"Last time I saw her, she was dragging Blaise off to 'explore' the gardens." He said looking as discreetly as possible towards where the the Weasley family were to be seated, far across the room. "Bill and Fleur don't look very happy."

With a snuffling laugh, Hermione said "I am quite certain of that. Fleur told me that she has been avoiding the Burrow and that Bill has only gone when he has no choice. What I find amusing is that they dragged Charlie and Percy back for this."

"I am sure Percy came back from his diplomatic position in Belgium because he is a ministry official. At least that is what I am hoping." Harry said as he moved Hermione and himself out of direct view of the now looking around Ron. "Oops, too late, he sees us."

"Do you think I could get away with stunning him before he manages to speak?" Hermione asked in a hopeful tone. "Or better yet, you can, after all your reflexes are faster."

Chuckling, he said "Suck it up, Hermione, Ron isn't that bad. at least, he has given up on marrying you, even if he feels the need to constantly brag about his supposed great love life."

"You weren't the one forced to spend half a year listening to Molly going on and on about how great it would be if we were to marry. How she constantly listed Ron's less than acceptable virtues. She even tried to make that he dropped out of the auror corps a positive." She whispered. When she heard Ron calling out their names, she turned and put a polite smile on her face for anyone watching to see as her former almost boyfriend greeted Harry and her in a loud voice.

"Hello Ron." Harry said as cautiously as he could, not wanting to draw attention to them. "How are you, mate? Still working for George."

"Fine, fine." The red head said and after a quick and angry glare at Hermione said "You won't believe the incredibly hot looking bird I picked up last week. I invited her here tonight, but Mum insisted that we come as a family. She was fine with it, it was nice not having to deal with a witch who thinks it is her right to tell me what to do. Who doesn't think I am an idiot, who respects me for my brains."

Harry didn't reply, he had heard from Remus and his wife Tonks about Ron's bird and how they had intervened to protect the walking talking idiot who had not noticed the adams apple on his 'date'. He had less than a year ago considered the man across from him one of his closest friends, until he had overheard him talking about him in a rather insulting manner behind his back.

Shocked, he had confronted Ron only to be told that the red head had only done so to get into the bed of the pureblood witch he had been speaking to. Harry had simply stared at him and then asked "What about Hermione?" only to be told that Ron was still intending to marry Hermione when she graduated Hogwarts, but that for now, he intended to have a little fun with the women who were always willing to sleep with him as a result of his fame for helping to defeat Voldemort.

Harry had not wanted to tell Hermione, had in fact stayed quiet until a witch had shown up in Hogsmead and had claimed to be pregnant with Ron's child. He had denied it, had denied having slept with the woman in spite of it being rather obvious he was lying.

Hermione had heard the woman's claims and had defended Ron at first and Harry had let it be until Hermione had straight out asked him if Ron had been dating other women while they were at Hogwarts.

He had been unable to lie to her and had apologized for keeping it a secret as long as he had. He had agreed to be nearby when Hermione had confronted Ron the following weekend and he had been shocked at Ron's rather cold attitude and remarks that if Hermione had been willing to sleep with him, he wouldn't have had the need to sleep with other women. Ron had claimed she was frigid because she had not let him have sex with her and had bragged how most pureblooded witches he met at least gave him a blow job if he wanted them to.

He had even stated that Harry had told him that Ginny and he had been sleeping together all along and that they had done all sorts of things that Harry hadn't done with anyone let alone Ginny Weasley.

Hermione who had known that Ginny and Harry had not gotten back together in spite of what certain members of the Weasley family believed, that in fact Ginny was using Harry to hide who she was really dating had coldly called Ron a lying cheating scumbag and told him that she was through with him.

Ron had left and immediately gone home to complain to his mother about being dumped, having conveniently left out why Hermione had ended things with him. Ginny when told of what her brother was claiming had had to be restrained as she attempted to exit the school and fly home on her broom to strangle her brother with her bare hands.

Molly's howler to Hermione had been set on fire by Headmaster Severus Snape who had promptly returned to his tower office and sent Molly Weasley a howler of her own to inform her that if she EVER sent one of those horrid owls again while he was Headmaster at Hogwarts, he would personally show up at her house and remove her voice box for the sake of the wizarding world.

Now, here they were six months later, having managed to evade the rather angry woman and her deluded son. Hermione was under no false illusions that she would be able to exit the ballroom unscathed by Howler Molly as Remus had called her during their Christmas break spent at the newly renovated Grimmauld.

Molly had spent the entire holiday getting her anger issues out by sending howlers to Hermione at Grimmauld. It had gotten so bad that Harry had set the wards to keep out the Weasley family owls.

"Anyhow, I soon expect to be doing well for myself. After all, George needs me and I think I should be given a share of WWW. It's only right." Ron said smugly as he looked at Hermione. "I heard you didn't hired at the Ministry, that they only hired four graduating Hogwarts students and that you weren't one of them."

"No, Hannah Abbott, Ernie McMillian, Terry Boot and Pansy Parkinson are going to work for the Ministry." Hermione said not bothering to tell him that she hadn't even applied to work at the Ministry. She had received several very interesting offers that would have greater influence than the Ministry and that would pay much better.

"So much for being Head Girl and tops in our class. I guess all that hard work and studying was for nothing, wasn't it Hermione?" Ron taunted. "Guess it takes a bit more to work for the Ministry."

"Ron, enough." Harry finally snapped.

"Oh course you would stick up for her." Ron snapped. "I saw that you didn't get that auror spot, did you Harry? I guess being the boy who lived wasn't enough, was it Harry?"

"Ronald I suggest you walk away and fast before my partner and myself fire your rear end." George said in a terse tone as he walked over.

"What partner?" Ron demanded "How could you have a partner. Mum said... you should give me Fred's share."

"Mum isn't a partner in my store." George said looking at his younger brother. "I made a deal with the wizard who gave Fred and I are start up funds. He gave me a nice influx of cash so that I could bring on a secret inventor and I gave him an equal share in the store."

"You had no right... Just wait until I tell Mum." Ron fumed and stormed off to where his mother was still seated at their table for the evening.

George watched his brother and then looking at Harry and Hermione said "Wait until he finds out that Draco Malfoy is coming to work for me and that he can't say a word to him."

"How is that working out? I mean the brewing and inventing?" Harry asked.

"We signed a contract, he invents for the store and he gets a share of the profits off the items he creates." George said. "I still can't believe I hired him."

"He has been rather strange acting lately." Harry said not telling the other wizard Draco's secret. Not even Malfoy's parents knew and he was well aware that Draco was scared of his father's reaction to the news that Draco intended to break his engagement to the younger Greengrass girl and marry a witch his family would consider beneath him.

George looked at Hermione and leaned in to hug the young woman wearing the pale lilac strapless dress and said "You look magnificent. No wonder my brother is green with envy. I have to say though, I never thought Ron and you would last as a couple. I never thought you would end up dating at all. Fred used to joke that someone had to have slipped you a love potion for you to even think about dating our younger brother."

Hermione grimaced and hid the truth, knowing it was less than flattering to herself and rather cruel to think about regarding Ron. She had even checked herself for love potions and had gone to the Headmaster before heading home during the winter holidays. He had looked at her then had used a spell only to inform her that she had not be dosed. Which had meant that it had been her own mistakes and fears that had led her to date the youngest male Weasley.

Hermione and Harry decided to rejoin their table, well aware that Molly Weasley would avoid it like it was full of plague carriers. Seated next to Remus and Tonks but across from Andromeda and her family, Harry heard Draco's snarky comment to Severus Snape and said "You have no idea how right you are."

"What?" Remus asked.

"Ron did run to his mother but not over anything Hermione said, no, he was rather upset to be told that he wasn't going to receive Fred's share in the business that the twins started." Harry said shaking his head. Ron worked two hours a day, three to four days a week as a sales clerk and complained about having to do that, yet he seemed to believe he deserved a share of WWW.

"He is going to flip when he learns who his boss is going to be." Draco said with a grimace at having to deal with the prat. Looking at his father and mother who were speaking with the final couple at their table, he said to Hermione and Harry, "I am going to find someone interesting to dance with."

"Before you do, you might want to find a way to show your parents the rather interesting orchids outside the French doors leading to the fountain." Hermione replied.

"Why would my parents care about orchids?" Draco asked.

"I am rather sure that they won't. I do think that your father might change his mind about your betrothal if he were to look upon these particularly delicate orchids." Hermione said.

Draco soon drew his parents out the mentioned doors by saying he wanted to speak to his parents privately. They had clearly followed in the hopes that he would be willing to announce his engagement. That all ended when they came to the small niche near the fountain and found Astoria Greengrass with her robes held above her now naked waist and Zacharias Smith standing between her spread thighs moaning loudly as he agreed to repair her virginity at the end of their latest session.

The thundercloud on Lucius' face as they rejoined their party had Draco hiding his own pleasure at the now ended engagement. He saw the raised eye brow of his godfather and quietly whispered what they had seen.

With a sneer, Severus said. "I tried to warn your father. He refused to listen about the two Greengrass girls. They were given way too much freedom and money by their doting father. So, who is next on his list? You managed to get rid of Pansy, Tracy, the two Greengrass heirs, all that is left really would be the Abbott girl or that bint Edgecombe."

"No, there are a few others." Draco said with a slight grin. "No, I have a different plan and intend to tell him about it next week after I move out of the manor."

"I was unaware that you had made any plans to do so." Snape replied as the guests all began to head towards their seats.

"My father is as well and I hope he remains that way until I have moved into the apartment I let." Draco replied as the crowd settled down for Kingsley to speak to them.

Across the table, Hermione and Harry were listening as the former auror requested those who were to read the names of the dead to move forward. As the four third year Hogwarts students each representing a different house began to read the names starting with the most recent deaths and working backwards read the names for those who had died in the second war, Harry held onto Hermione's hand as her parent's names were read, then she did the same for him when the name of Sirius Black was announced.

When the young girl from Hufflepuff read the last name of Cedric Diggory, Harry laid his head on Hermione's shoulder and closed his eyes as he let the silence drift over him as they held a minute of silence.

Kingsley moved forward to speak again, this time announcing that the Ministry would be honoring the deaths of those lost in the first war with Voldemort. Harry's eyes went immediately to Remus Lupin whose eyes were on him as they started with the name James Charlus Potter followed by Lily Evans Potter. At his mother's name, Harry saw Snape flinch out of the corner of his eye and decided to invite the man on his outing the next day to visit the grave of his mother and father. Hermione was going to attend and she would keep the sometimes simmering peace between the two of them.

When they finished, Harry found that the food placed in front of him was tasteless as a result of the heaviness on his soul. Looking around, he saw that most of the room had no such problem. He heard the opening screech of the violin preparing to play again and immediately asked Hermione to dance with him needing to get away from the new found silence at their table.

On the dance floor, he held her close and then chuckled as they smoothly glided across the dance floor. "What?"

"Sorry, I was just remembering the first time I learned to do this." He said looking at her. "You were so beautiful that night. You always are, but that night... I had always known you were a girl, but it took seeing you dressed in a gown for me to realize that you were more than my friend."

When he saw her doubt, he said "I saw how Ron looked at you. I was sure you liked him back so I stayed silent and tried to find someone else to like. Cho knew, when I spoke to Ginny at the end of last year, she knew to my shock. She was the one who tried to convince me to tell you then. I should have, but I was so scared I would lose what we already have."

"Harry..." Hermione's voice faded as she realized that both Harry and she had made the exact same mistake. "I was sure that you were too cute, too sought after to ever like me. I was your pal, your mate."

"You do know that mate has more than one definition." He softly stated. "I was so sure that I was over you, that I was sure you were like a sister to me. Then Ron was a jackass and I overheard that moronic buffoon at the New Years Eve party last year talk about dating you and I wanted to rip his arms off and stick them up his rear just for saying how he would love to see you naked."

She couldn't help laughing at that statement. "I was sure you were just being an overprotective friend or brother."

"No, not likely considering that after seeing you in that bathing suit last summer, I kept trying to image you without it." He said in a cheeky tone that had her attempting to glare at him.

"Harry!" She said now laughing out loud. "How could you?"

"Hey, I tried to stop but my brain refused to listen and frankly my body was enjoying that particular day dream too much." He answered. "Anyhow, I already knew that you and I were compatible, the day dreams just pointed out that I was lying to myself about my interest in you. It took my struggling on how to tell you about Ron without hurting you for me to realize that what I truly felt wasn't familial love but a different, deeper emotion."

When he saw her eyes water, he shook his head and said "I swore I would wait and tell you this when we were in Paris, yet here I am admitting it now, but I am going to shut up until the end of the night. Until we no longer have an audience comprised of half of the room who will wish us well and half that will hate one or the other of us."

"You forgot about the hot headed members of a certain family who will want to hex us." Hermione said. "One thing before I let us postpone this discussion, I love you too, Harry."

With that, they pulled apart to avoid giving the crowd a show by kissing. Returning to the table, they were so distracted by each other they missed the tension of the rest of their table until they heard a voice that had them both shuddering as Molly Weasley demanded to know "I hope you two are proud of yourselves. After all I did for you, to treat us the way you have. Harry, we barely see you. Poor Ginny is beside herself because of you. You have no idea the amount of pain she is in."

Looking at the woman standing behind Moony's chair, Harry glanced over to where Ginny was introducing her eldest brother and his wife to Blaise Zabini and said "She really looks to be in pain. If that is her idea of pining away waiting for me, I would hate to see how she would react if she didn't care."

Molly whirled around and saw her daughter with that dark haired foreign wizard and growled before turning back to state "Your mistreatment is why she is with that foreign dark wizard. She expected you to propose last year and you completely ignored her wishes."

Harry saw that others were getting ready to intervene and stopped them, sick and tired of being dressed down by this woman. "Why would Ginny who I barely dated for six weeks think I would propose marriage to her? After all she dated both Dean Thomas and Michael Corner longer."

Molly was about reply when Harry looked over at the dance floor where Ginny was now dancing with Zabini and said "Strangely enough, I have spoken several times to Ginny this year and she has never mentioned being upset that we weren't dating. You are the only person still mourning that barely in existence relationship, Mrs. Weasley. Your daughter isn't. I'm not."

Her eyes now narrowed as she watched her daughter flirt with that very unacceptable wizard, Molly found she had nothing left to say for the moment about her daughter and the most famous wizard currently alive in Britain so she turned to Hermione and said "And what do you have to say about your self, missy?"

"Frankly, Molly what happened between your son and myself is no one's business but ours." Hermione stated in a snippy tone. "However if you ever want the truth, I suggest dosing him with veritiaserum and asking him for it."

"How dare you suggest that my son would lie to me." Molly shrieked. "After all, Ron wanted to marry you. How could you not consider an offer of marriage from such a respectable wizard, who do you think you are?"

"Molly, in Ron's case, marriage is just a fancy word for adopting your overgrown youngest male child who you want to pawn off on someone else because you are tired of being still being his wet nurse. No self-respecting witch will ever want to marry your youngest son because you and he come as a package deal. If Ron is so desperate to trap some foolish girl into marriage, he might want to stop being a selfish, self absorbed git who will sleep with anything that moves, learn to clean up after himself and stop eating like a pig freshly shown to the feeding trough and most importantly that prat needs to learn to cut the damn apron strings because frankly you are an overbearing interfering delusional witch."

There was silence in the room as Hermione's tirade was heard.

The young witch's face flushed as she realized how loud she had been and how many had heard what she had to say. Tensing as she looked at those around her, she was stunned when on the other side of the table, she heard someone clapping their hands, then another and finally half the room was doing so.

Molly turned a lovely shade of puce and stalked off muttering about how disrespectful Hermione was being to her betters so she missed Severus Snape's quite chuckle as he told the two remaining members of the golden trio, "Albus is up there watching what just happened and clapping along with the entire room."

"Sirius too." Remus admitted with a guilty expression on his face. "I feel bad for Arthur though."

"I don't." Lucius Malfoy stated in a terse tone. When they looked at him, he said "He knew who she was when he slept with her and got her pregnant seventh year. It is his own fault, he should have used a sticking charm on her lips years ago."

Harry drew Hermione out the French doors, knowing that she would want to escape all of the attention from the crowd. He had found a gate that led to the street during the last ministry ball earlier that year and was intending on leaving the party when he heard someone calling out Hermoine's name.

Looking at the shadow in the darkness, they soon saw Bill Weasley approaching. "I apologize for the Weasley family regarding my mother's behavior though, Hermione that was a bit cruel."

"I am not sorry, Bill." She said. "I am that I embarrassed those in your family who have stood by me after I ended things with Ron but..."

With a worried look at Harry, then deciding it was time she said "I caught Ron cheating on me, he had gotten a witch pregnant and denied it. I have no idea what happened to her or the child. Ron insulted me rather horridly in the middle of Hogsmead last year and when I ended things he ran to your mother and lied to her about what happened. I tried to tell her the truth, but she said some rather hurtful things in a howler."

"I heard." Bill said.

"What you didn't know, what I didn't tell you, Harry was that Percy made it clear that I should have just accepted Ron's behavior because Ron is a pureblood and I am nothing more than a jumped up muggleborn. His words not mine. Charlie also sent me a rather nasty note as well after your mother wrote to him and spread your brother's version of the truth which included me apparently cheating on your brother while I was busy burying my parents two summers ago."

Shaking his head Bill said "I had no idea."

"She sent me several howlers to my dorm room at Hogwarts and her last one arrived during dinner. I am sure you heard what the Headmaster did." Hermione said. When he nodded yes, she stated "We went to Grimmauld for Christmas a few weeks later and she tried to floo in and insult me. When she was refused entrance she sent daily howlers to not only myself but to Harry."

Bill thought about the supposed oversight and groaned. "We weren't invited to this, were we?"

"You were, Fleur, George, Ginny and her plus one were, but Kingsley was aware of what was going on. Ron was to be invited to the formal unveiling of the memorial tomorrow but not to tonight." Harry said. "When the press caught on, the head of public affairs sent out invitations to the rest of your family, claiming it was an oversight."

"Does my father know?" Bill asked wearily.

"Not that I am aware of." Hermione said. "Bill, there is something else. I am going to be apprenticing with Professor McGonagall at Hogwarts next year but this summer, I have a job working for Lucius Malfoy."

"Oh Merlin." Bill replied. "Just please don't start dating the Malfoy boy. It's going to be bad enough trying to rein her in as it is."

With a silent conversation between the two of them, Harry knew he had to tell the wizard. "Bill, Hermione and I..."

"I am going to ask Fleur how she feels about moving to France this summer." The curse breaker muttered as he offered his congratulations and then returned to his family. Leaning in, he whispered to his wife what was going on and when she quickly agreed, he announced "Fleur and I have an announcement to make."

"I'm going to be a grandmother." Molly exclaimed even as she vowed to straighten out that scarlet tart Hermione Granger.

"No." Bill quickly stated. "We have been offered a summer cottage in France by Fleur's family and we have decided to spend the next several months there."

"Well that is just not acceptable to me." Molly snapped. "You should be staying here, concentrating on starting a family."

"Mrs. Weasley, Bill and I have agreed to wait a few years, so that I can get established in my career." Fleur replied. When Molly protested, she added "It's our choice, and ours alone."

When the red headed matron of the Weasley family began to get up to straighten out the French tart, her eldest son stood, announced that he was getting rather tired of having to apologize to his wife for his family and apparated his wife right out of the room to the shock of the rest of the family.

George stood and grabbing his robe that was slung over the back of his chair, looked at his brothers and his mother and said "I am leaving as well. Ron, you should know, I have found someone to replace you at the store, thank you for your help this year but I think it is time for you to move on to something more suited to your talents."

With that, he exited the ballroom and went to stay at the apartment over the store for the first time since losing Fred.

Across the room, Ginny thanked Blaise for being so patient with her and escorted him to where her family was seated. Blaise politely greeted her family and then requested a moment with Arthur.

The befuddled patriarch followed the unknown young wizard to a nearby alcove and was confused as to why this young man was asking for his daughter's hand in marriage. "I thought she was dating Harry. It's what my wife told me."

"Geneva and I have been dating since March of last year, sir. We kept it quiet because your family kept trying to push her towards Potter. They don't suit and I love her."

"If she loves you back, I have no objections." Arthur replied now worried about his wife could be so confused about who their daughter was dating. After all the only thing this boy had in common, at least physically with Potter was his dark hair. "Does she love you?"

"She says she does and I believe her." Blaise replied as he pulled out the Zabini betrothal contract from the inner pocket of his robes. "Would you please have your barrister look these over? All they pretty much spell out is that if I should die, what she and any offspring should inherit and that my mother would have no contact with my family. This was created by my father's family, not hers."

Arthur took the contract, took a good look at the steady but handsome young man across from him and said "I will have this signed as soon as Ginny and I speak."

"Thank you sir." Blaise said and went to retrieve Ginny. As they disengaged from her family, he saw Draco dancing with that odd Lovegood girl and smirked. Well aware that Draco was both repulsed and fascinated by her, he pointed them out to Ginny and asked "What do you think?"

She giggled and said "She will drive Lucius insane. I almost wish I could be there when he finds out."

Marriage is...

A year later as the band struck up it's first song, Romilda Vane who had replaced Rita Skeeter as the gossip reporter for the Daily Prophet saw her favorite blind item couple entering the ballroom and joining a slightly oblong table filled with happy couples.

"So Granger, last year you claimed marriage was a fancy word for adopting an overgrown male child who cannot be handled by his mother any longer. Has time changed your opinion?" She archly asked. When the witch ignored her, she reached out to tap her on the arm and repeated her question.

"Oh, were you talking to me?" Hermione asked innocently. When she saw the other witch's scowl she said "First of all my last name is Potter, not Granger and to be specific, I was talking about marriage to Ron Weasley not Harry."

"So what is your opinion of marriage now?" She asked. Looking at the other woman around the table and knowing she would never have a chance to get quotes from this caliber of society witches for ages, she said "What about the rest of you ladies, in one sentence how would you describe marriage?"

Luna looked at Draco and said "Finding a crumpled horned snorkack and not caring because you have tamed your very own dragon."

There was a amused shake of her father-in-laws head as his pregnant daughter in law patted his son's knee and pressed a kiss to his cheek. They often argued with one another about her invisible creatures but Lucius in truth only cared that his son loved his wife and that they were happy. It was only an added bonus that she was a pureblood witch.

His wife was looking at her husband knowing he was amused by Luna again as she looked at the twit standing nearby waiting to write down her response as if she had the answers to all of the world's problems.

"Marriage my dear Ms. Vane is learning forgiveness for mistakes, looking deeper than what is shown on your spouse's surface and patience." Narcissa replied recalling all she had had to forgive regarding her husband's less than savory political interests. The only reason that they had lasted so long was because she knew that underneath that cold public exterior was a man who adored herself and their son.

The very irreverent Tonks looked at the annoying bint and with a smirk replied before she was asked. "Marriage is great sex in the morning, quickie sex at lunch and long slow loving all night long, at least for me, what about you Vane?"

There was a sour expression on her face as Romilda looked at Hermione Granger, no Potter and asked "What is marriage to you?"

"Passion, trust, and knowing that other person is your future." Hermione answered.

"And where did you two go on your honeymoon?" Romilda asked.

"Where?" Hermione asked sounding confused but the glint in her eyes gave the game away.

"Yes, what exotic locale did the very famous Potters' go to?" she asked between gritted teeth.

"Potter is that very large four poster bed you two picked out with my wife considered an exotic locale?" Zabini asked as Ginny and he joined them. "If you left the bedroom, then I lost my bet with Draco."

Flushing, Harry said in a defensive tone. "We went to New Orleans, remember?"

"Really?" Draco asked skeptically. "And did you two actually see anything of the city or did you spent all of your time in a bed?"

"We had to eat at some point, Malfoy." Hermione stated while flushing the same red as Harry. They had in fact only seen the city from the balcony of their hotel while eating dinner that last evening. They had never left the hotel before that.

There was some more laughter before Ginny looked up to see her brother across the room with his new wife. "Ron is here."

"I heard that Astoria's father insisted he take a calming draught at the request of the Minister if he wanted to attend this event." Romilda stated as she once again drew their attention.

"We have no comment regarding Ron Weasley." Severus tersely stated as he glared at his former student. When she had left, Severus looked at the newly married couple and said "Have you two decided how we are going to handle the two Professor Potters situation this fall?"

"Yes, we have." Hermione announced with a wink at Harry. "We have decided that I am going to go by Professor Potter and Harry has chosen a different name to use."

"What name?" Severus Snape asked dreading the answer in case the boy chose to use Evans.

"I have two very different choices. The first one is Professor the Chosen One?" Harry asked as he watched the older man choke on his wine. "What you don't like that idea?"

"There are days I wonder why on earth I decided to hire you to teach." Severus said glaring at the irreverent pain in his rear. "Now, what did you two decide?"

With a concerned look at Remus, Harry said softly "I am sure you won't like the real choice much better but after a visit to the Goblins I added Black to my last name to honor Sirius. It's now Harry Potter-Black, so I am going to have my students call me Professor Black."

Nodding, Severus said "I will inform the others."

With that he went to get himself a drink at the bar while Remus clasped Harry on the shoulders and said "Padfoot would be proud, pup."

"Thanks Remus." Harry replied as he looked around those gathered at his table and thought about the changes in the last two years. He had lost Ron as a result of growing up but he had gained so much and his future...

Well he had to admit his wife was right, marriage was passion, trust and knowing the other person was your future. But then, Hermione was right more often than not. Leaning over, he pressed a kiss to her lips and whispered he loved her knowing that their future going to be great.

**The End.**


End file.
